The present invention relates to automobile flood protection system in which a plastic container member having a bottom panel and integrally joined end and side panels such that when a vehicle is contained thereby and is surrounded by flood waters, the container floats with the vehicle carried therein. The present invention provides a pair of reinforcing strips on the bottom panel to resist puncture of the plastic container when the vehicle is driven thereon and one or more flap members joined to the sides of a container with a plurality of grommet holes in the flat member for tethering purposes. The invention also relates to a method of folding the vehicle flood protection container in an expeditious and compact way so that the container can be unfolded in a systematic patternx When the container is unfolded, the vehicle can be easily pushed driven onto the container so that the sides can be extended upwardly and snugged by a snugging device against the sides of the vehicle.
The present invention is an improvement on the vehicle flood protection systems disclosed in our patent application Ser. No. 08/660,663 filed Jun. 5, 1996 for MOTOR VEHICLE AND VALUABLE POSSESSION FLOOD PROTECTION APPARATUS AND METHOD, our patent application Ser. No. 09/014,995 filed Jan. 28, 1998 for MOTOR VEHICLE PROTECTION APPARATUS AND METHOD incorporated herein by reference, and our application Ser. No. 08/887,421 filed Jul. 2, 1997 for INFLATABLE CAR RESCUE BAG incorporated herein by reference.
According to the present invention, a motor vehicle flood protection apparatus comprises at least a lower plastic or other water proof container member having a bottom panel and integrally joined end and side panels that have edges joined to form a vehicle container with the end and side panels having vertical heights which are less than the height of a vehicle to be flood protected but well above the xe2x80x9cfloat levelxe2x80x9d (as defined in our application Ser. No. 08/660,663) for the motor vehicle and of sufficient height that, when surrounded by flood waters, the container floats with the vehicle carried therein. According to the present invention, a pair of reinforcement strips are joined to the bottom panel to resist puncture of the plastic container member and at least one tether securement flap member is joined to the side of the container, each flap contains a plurality of grommet holes for purposes of tethering the container or otherwise securing objects to the container.
According to the method disclosed herein, a vehicle flood protection container (VFPC) is folded by first laying a VFPC flat on a ground surface with the pair of reinforcing strips having outside edges parallel to the center of the VFPC. Then, the lateral quarters of the VFPC are folded inwardly along the outside edges of the reinforcing strips, respectively. Then the ends of the VFPC are folded along the ends of the portion strips. The VFPC is folded into the center of the reinforcing strips along the lines transverse to the axis and, finally, the VFPC is folded along the axis.